A dazzling exhibition means this is the summer to head for the Midi. Sean Newsom previews the show and designs the short breaks to fit

It’s the light, stupid. Obviously, it’s the light. It smacks you round the
face the moment you get off the plane in Marseilles or Nice, and tells you
to sit up, stop your northern navel-gazing and take notice. It electrifies
colours and throws every building, tree and object into razor-sharp focus.
It’s inescapable and endlessly exciting. If you’ve ever ­wondered what it
was about the south of France that got painters of the stature of Cézanne,
Van Gogh, Matisse and ­Picasso excited — well, you’ve only got to go there
yourself, and open your eyes.

It’s a pilgrimage every art-lover should make at least once in their life, and
this is the summer to do it. Because — thanks to Marseilles’s stint as a
­European Capital of Culture — an exhibition has just opened that celebrates
the love affair between artists and the south in all its colour and
complexity. It’s called Le